Broadband wireless technologies are poised to take advantage of the tremendous growth in broadband access and wireless communications. Broadband users today enjoy a multitude of high-bandwidth applications utilizing their digital subscriber line (DSL) or cable modem technologies. In parallel, wireless communication users are adopting wireless devices as their primary communication means at an ever increasing rate. As broadband and wireless technologies meet, there are significant opportunities for even greater expansion of the applications and devices that are today limited to only one or the other of these technologies.
Consumers today are using portable electronic devices in record numbers. Portable music players or MP3 players, video players, cellular telephones, and personal digital assistants are some of the devices that have gained popularity over the years. Additionally, consumers have the ability to share information, conduct business and seek entertainment utilizing the broadband access technologies described above. Users are now seeking to combine both worlds and to utilize their portable devices to have the same broadband experience. Applications that enable web surfing, video streaming, interactive gaming, voice calling are just a sample of what is becoming available to subscribers of wireless broadband technologies.
As the demand for wireless broadband access increases, the burden on communication networks and their network elements also increases. Consumers that are adopting broadband wireless devices are doing so in a new subscription model whereby the consumer only needs to purchase one subscription with the network operator. Thus, a single subscriber may have the ability to have multiple devices accessing the network at the same time. This leads to a significant increase in the utilization of the network and may contribute to a degradation of quality as seen by the network subscribers.